Joji Mizuno

Joji Mizuno (born 1933) was a Japanese TMPD detective who, in 1963, infiltrated the Nomoto Enterprises yakuza organization after the apparent suicide of his partner Koichi Takeshita in what Mizuno believed was a yakuza murder.

Biography[]

Joji Mizuno was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1933, and he joined the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department as a detective, being partnered with Koichi Takeshita. He was fired from the TMPD and sent to prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido after being convicted of embezzlement for using police money without clearance during a job in Kobe, and, during his incarceration, his partner Takeshita died in an apparent lovers' suicide with a call girl. Mizuno, believing that the yakuza gang Nomoto Enterprises was responsible for Takeshita's death due to Takeshita's investigation into the organization's prostitution racket, decided to take the law into his own hands by infiltrating Nomoto Enterprises.

Mizuno purposefully got himself into trouble by beating up the yakuza Ken Ishizaki in the street before going to a cabaret and spending ¥70,000 on drinks while accompanied by several women. That cabaret was also a frequent hangout of Nomoto Enterprises yakuza, and, after seeing him through the window of the soundproof room where he and the other yakuza congregated, Ishizaki told his fellow yakuza that Mizuno was the man who beat him up. The yakuza brought Mizuno into their soundproof room for interrogation, but Mizuno said that he beat up Ishizaki because he felt like it, and, when he was butted in the head with a pistol by the interrogator for his lack of respect, Mizuno beat down the interrogator and emptied his gun. The apparent boss of the other men, Soichi Ozawa, offered Mizuno the opportunity to join his organization for any price he asked, mistaking him for a member of the rival Sanko-gumi; Mizuno demanded ¥1 million up front and ¥200,000 a month. He then asked if the yakuza thought he was a hitman, and he revealed that he just wanted a job. The man then agreed to introduce Mizuno to the boss, confusing Mizuno, who thought that the man was the boss.

Mizuno was taken to a meeting of the Nomoto Enterprises leadership, meeting the hitman Goro Minami and the knife-throwing boss Tetsuo Nomoto as he entered, with Minami taking a liking to Mizuno. Mizuno revealed that he was staying at the Hibiya Hotel but could not afford it, and Nomoto overheard the conversation and decided to pick up Mizuno's tab, sending Minami to the hotel to pay for him. Minami was surprised to see that Mizuno actually stayed there, and that he had Abashiri - the prison town - written down as his address. Mizuno and Minami later met up for Mizuno's first job, and Mizuno assembled a sniper rifle and gifted it to Minami, who excitedly shook his hand.

Mizuno extorting the real estate businessman

Mizuno and Minami first headed to a real estate business which had stopped paying Nomoto Enterprises and had gone over to the Sanko-gumi. Mizuno extorted the real estate businessman into paying him by briefly lighting his hair on fire with a blowtorch, and the businessman agreed to pay up. Just then, several Sanko-gumi men arrived to attack Mizuno, who was cornered until Minami held the gun-wielding Sanko-gumi hitman hostage with a rifle, enabling Mizuno to beat down the four other henchmen. He then confronted the real estate businessman, who had attempted to renege on the deal, and upped the protection money to ¥3 million. Upon returning to the Nomoto Enterprises headquarters, Minami gleefully told the bosses about Mizuno being correct about a gunman hiding on the balcony, and he said that he wouldn't work without Mizuno from then on. Tetsuo Nomoto then told Mizuno that he had checked him out and he was clean, so he put him on the family's payroll and gave him his first payment. Minami excitedly said that he was going to hang out with Mizuno that day, but Mizuno said that he couldn't, as he had a friend's memorial service to attend.

Mizuno then drove to Takeshita's funeral, where he met Takeshita's widow, Kumiko Takeshita, and told her that her late husband had been kind to him, causing her to welcome Joji in. Mizuno paid his respects at Takeshita's altar before Kumiko invited him to stay and eat, but Mizuno insisted thathe had to go. Kumiko asked him to tell her a story about her husband, but, while Kumiko was distracted by a phone call, Mizuno left.

Mizuno proceeded to search for information regarding Takeshita's death, finding an advertisement for Club Aoi on the bumper of a parked car and discovering that the call girl who was murdered alongside Takeshita worked there. Later, after getting out of the shower, he found his boss' mistress Keiko Hoshi waiting for him, pointing a gun at him. She recognized him as a policeman from her days as a prostitute, and she asked him to make love to her and fooled around before bluntly telling Mizuno that she wanted him to kill the boss' sixth mistress. The two made love and got dressed before Keiko explained that she had already built a tomb for the mistress, and that she wanted her dead because she was the only mistress she couldn't control. She offered Mizuno half of what she got if the mistress was killed, but, when Mizuno asked what she would do if he said no, Keiko threatened to tell her lover that Joji dragged her to his apartment and raped her, and, as Nomoto was a jealous man, that would be the end of Mizuno.

That night, Sanko-gumi captain Shigeru Takechi attempted to kidnap Mizuno in a parking garage as Mizuno went to investigate another club, but Mizuno managed to steal a shotgun and force Takechi and his two henchmen to drop their guns. However, he agreed to go along with them to meet their boss, and he met Patriarch Shinzuke Onodera and intimidated him with a shotgun. Onodera agreed to hire Mizuno as a spy within Nomoto Enterprises, offering to double whatever Nomoto was paying him; Mizuno smugly asked, "Why do all you big shots say the same stupid lines?" He then ordered everyone else to leave so that he could talk with Onodera alone, and he agreed to spy for Onodera; however, he threatened to kill Takechi when Takechi overheard him, but Onodera insisted that Takechi wouldn't grass, and that they were all partners.

Mizuno proceeded to leave the headquarters with Onodera as a reluctant human shield, as they were enemies on the outside, and Mizuno found Minami approaching with another Sanko-gumi henchman, telling Joji that he had seen him be taken away from his apartment, and that he knew that he would come out on top. The two then exchanged prisoners, and Joji returned to his apartment with Minami. There, Minami was amused that the hammer on Mizuno's shotgun was broken, and that the Sanko-gumi henchmen had been afraid for nothing all along. Mizuno also asked Minami if they ran call girls, but Minami continued to talk about guns, saying that only guns interested him. Mizuno then said that Onodera made fun of them, as a woman must be running the call girl business. Minami merely responded, "Alcohol and women are bad for me." Mizuno called Minami a "worthless piece of sh**" like the shotgun and told him to go to sleep, and he closed the sliding door between their rooms. Minami grew angry and burst into Mizuno's room, calling him the useless one. He then revealed that Onodera wasn't talking about a woman, but Hideo Nomoto, the boss' gay brother. Minami then reminded Joji not to forget that he knew everything about their gang, and Joji apologized to an emotional Minami and asked about Hideo. Minami revealed that Nomoto's mother was a prostitute after World War II who "specialized in Black men," but he warned Joji never to mention that to Hideo, as he once carved up a drunk woman's face with a razor after she insulted his mother.

Mizuno and Yoshida arranging for a call girl

The next day, Mizuno had another man, Yoshida, call the Murasaki Club (where the two were sitting) and ask them, "Send me one", referring to a prostitute. Yoshida said that he was in Shibuya, so the man behind the phone told him to call them back in 30 minutes from the payphone at Namikibashi, and they could then discuss the place. Yoshida then headed to the payphone and called in the call girl, and Joji - who stayed behind at the club - saw Hideo arrange to send the girl to him.

Joji then sat down with Hideo and asked if he knew who he was. Hideo didn't recognize Joji, and Joji demanded that Hideo take him to the man he just got off the phone with. Hideo refused, but Joji said that he could call the man himself and find out. Hideo said that he had other business to attend to, but Joji said that he heard that his mother was a whore. Hideo then sat down, reached for a razor tucked into his sock, and attempted to attack Joji, only for Joji to gain the upper hand and demand to know his partner in the prostitution business. Just then, Tetsuo Nomoto arrived and asked what was going on, and he had Mizuno taken in for violent interrogation. Under duress, Mizuno revealed that Keiko put him up to his secret dealings, and Tetsuo brought Mizuno along as he violently confronted Keiko. Tetsuo violently whipped Keiko with his belt before chasing her down as she tried to flee her house, killing her. One of Tetsuo's henchmen told Mizuno that their boss was a sadist, and that he enjoyed hitting women. The same henchman told Mizuno that the boss was also setting up a deal, and he brought Mizuno back to business as usual.

Mizuno then met with Onodera and told him that his boss was planning a drug deal worth ¥10 million, and he told Onodera to wait until the deal was done, and then strike and take the money, while forgetting about the drugs; that way, the drug buyers would think that Nomoto did it, and they would never do business with Nomoto again. As drugs were the backbone of the mafia, Nomoto would be finished. When Onodera asked Mizuno why he was helping him, and if he had a grudge against Nomoto, Mizuno said that he just wanted the money, and demanded ¥4 million of the ¥10 million, with ¥2 million paid in advance. Onodera reluctantly agreed, and he set up an ambush.

On the bus ride back to his apartment, Mizuno was confronted by Detective Seijun Hirokawa, who asked why he had gone to Takeshita's funeral, saying that Takeshita had taken Mizuno's embezzlement hardly, and that he heard that Mizuno had joined Nomoto Enterprises. After getting off of the bus, Mizuno told Hirokawa that Takeshita had taken care of his wife while he was in jail and until she died of tuberculosis. During the taxi ride back home, Mizuno told Hirokawa that he intended to repay Takeshita by avenging his murder. Hirokawa said that it was a double suicide, but Mizuno asked Hirokawa if he believed that Takeshita would cheat on his wife. Hirokawa said that there was proof, but Mizuno said that Takeshita was framed like him and then murdered. Mizuno then showed Hirokawa a photograph of the drug tycoon Yosuke Ishiyama and said that, when Ishiyama moved to Tokyo, Takeshita was transferred there as well. He then said that he planned to kill Takeshita's killers, causing Hirokawa to have the taxi driver stop, let them out, and drive off as he arrested Mizuno for illegal possession of a firearm.

Mizuno then aided the Sanko-gumi in stealing the drug money from one of Ishiyama's men, but Ishiyama's man, Shibata, recognized Mizuno. Shibata told Nomoto of this at a meeting between Nomoto and Ishiyama, and Nomoto and his men kidnapped Joji on his return to his apartment, although Minami refused to aim a gun at Mizuno, lest he be ordered to shoot him. Nomoto tortured Mizuno by stabbing into his finger with a dagger as Shibata showed Mizuno a photograph of him in police uniform, revealing that Mizuno used to be a policeman. Mizuno emotionally said that he had been a cop until he was convicted of corruption, and that he had also served time; he then shouted at Tetsuo, "You cut my finger for that!" Nomoto looked at the police gazette and confirmed that Mizuno had been in prison. Mizuno then threatened retribution against his boss for harming him, and Nomoto agreed to pay recompense, saying that Mizuno had a right to be angry. When he asked how much Mizuno wanted for his finger, Mizuno demanded one of his boss' fingers. When asked if he could prove that the thief wasn't him, Mizuno said that it must have been the Sanko-gumi committing the robbery in return for losing the protection racket he had stolen back from them, so Nomoto sent Mizuno, Minami, and Ishizaki to question Takechi. They broke into his apartment and took his wife hostage while they waited for him to come home, with Minami falling in love with Takechi's wife. Takechi burst into the apartment with a gun drawn, and he shot Ishizaki dead before Takechi's wife pulled Minami's shotgun muzzle towards her, leading to him accidentally shooting her. Minami, holding both Takechi's dead wife and his shotgun, hesitated for a moment before shooting Takechi dead, although he was also shot and wounded in the process. Mizuno helped Minami escape to the home of Takeshita's widow.

There, Mizuno told Kumiko that he and her deceased husband had been detectives together, but he got fired over a certain incident. He then revealed that he checked out the story over Takeshita's death and realized that he didn't kill himself, but that he was murdered. Kumiko was surprised, but Mizuno insisted that it was the truth, and that Takeshita never would have cheated on his wife. He said that the call girl worked for Nomoto and that the note was a fake, and, when Kumiko asked who murdered her husband, Mizuno said that he had joined the yakuza to find out, saying that he was getting close, and that, if the cops came in then, he would never find out.

Mizuno then called Nomoto and said that Takechi surprised them, and that the Sanko-gumi knew what they were up to. He convinced Nomoto that the Sanko-gumi were probably already plotting revenge, and, when Nomoto asked where Mizuno was, he said that he was at Takeshita Knitting School, and asked him to send help as soon as possible, lest Minami die. Mizuno then called Onodera and told him that Nomoto had killed Takechi, and he advised Onodera, "Forewarned is forearmed." Mizuno then persuaded Tetsuo to take in Kumiko to keep her safe from retribution, and Tetsuo said that Hideo would watch over her.

Nomoto confronting Mizuno over his betrayal

As Nomoto's men prepared for battle, Nomoto told Mizuno that he would stay behind, and he had two men aim guns at him as he "thanked" him for his lies. Mizuno attempted to play dumb, but Nomoto revealed that he knew that Mizuno had joined Nomoto Enterprises to avenge his old friend, and that he was working with the Sanko-gumi to wipe his gang out. Mizuno asked Nomoto who told him, but he merely laughed and had Mizuno chained to the ceiling to be tortured. However, he was rescued when the Sanko-gang attacked Nomoto's mansion and Onodera crashed his bomb-laden car into the mansion in a suicide bombing once it became clear that his gang would lose the turf war.

Mizuno managed to escape his bonds and pin Nomoto against the stairwell, asking him who killed Takeshita. Nomoto feigned ignorance, so Mizuno shot off three of his fingers before he revealed that Takeshita's wife was his sixth mistress. Mizuno had promised not to kill Nomoto if he spoke, but, as Mizuno got up to leave, Nomoto warned him that he would lose all of his limbs someday. Nomoto then attempted to tackle Mizuno, only for a gravely wounded Minami to walk up to the top of the stairs and shoot Nomoto three times, killing him. Minami then collapsed and told Mizuno, "You shouldn't let someone live who has a grudge against you. You've a lot to learn." Minami died seconds later, and Mizuno headed to confront Kumiko over her role in Takeshita's death.

Mizuno found Kumiko playing cards with Hideo, and he entered Hideo's house while Kumiko got up to answer the phone, holding Hideo at gunpoint. He asked Hideo who killed Takeshita, but, when Kumiko dropped some plates in the other room upon hearing Mizuno, Mizuno knocked out Hideo and held Kumiko at gunpoint, accusing her of being the killer. Kumiko initially feigned ignorance, but Mizuno said that Nomoto sang like a bird after he shot off three of his fingers. Kumiko swore that Nomoto made her kill Takeshita, and, when Mizuno asked Nomoto's motive, Kumiko said that Nomoto had found out about their call girl ring. Mizuno also had her reveal that she was Nomoto's lover, revealed that she was Takeshita's first love, and also said that she killed Takeshita through an overdose of chloroform and sleeping pills. She then begged for mercy, saying that she married Takeshita to get away from Nomoto, and that she was afraid of Nomoto for being a sadist. Mizuno superficially agreed that Kumiko was a victim and that Nomoto was a sadist, and he said that he wondered what kind of childhood he and his brother had. He said, "Their mother was...", and Kumiko finished his sentence by saying, "Yes, she was a street whore. Even at 40 years old." Kumiko then realized her error in speaking ill of Hideo's mother in front of him, and she tried to flee, but Mizuno threw her back into the room and closed the door, leaving her to be killed by Hideo. He then called Detective Hirokawa and played audio recordings of Nomoto and Kumiko's confessions over the phone, finally delivering justice for Takeshita before departing.